CONTROL SYSTEMS, ROBOTICS, AND AUTOMATION Vol II - Discrete-Time Equivalents to Continuous-Time Systems -

Mohammed S. Santina and Allen R. Stubberud

DISCRETE-TIME EQUIVALENTS TO CONTINUOUS-TIME

SYSTEMS

Mohammed S. Santina
Senior Technical Fellow, The Boeing Company, USA

Allen R. Stubberud
University of California Irvine, USA

Keywords: Digital control, sampling, reconstruction, Euler's methods, Tustin

transformation, frequency prewarping, matching step response, pole-zero matching,
state space models.

Contents

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1. Introduction

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2. Design of Discrete-Time Control Systems for Continuous-Time Plants
2.1. Sampling and A/D Conversion
2.2. Reconstruction and D/A Conversion
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3. Discrete-Time Equivalents of Continuous-Time Plants
4. Discretizing Continuous-Time Controllers
4.1 Numerical Approximation of Differential Equations
4.1.1. Euler's Forward Method (One Sample)
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4.1.2. Euler's Backward Method (One Sample)

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4.1.3 Trapezoidal Method (Two Sample)

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4.1.4 An Example
4.1.5 Mapping Between S and Z Planes Using Euler's and Tustin's Methods
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4.1.6 Frequency Response Approximations

4.1.7 Bilinear Transformation with Frequency Prewarping
4.2 Matching Step and Other Responses
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4.3 Pole-Zero Matching

5. Discretization of Continuous-Time State Variable Models
5.1. Discrete-Time Models of Continuous-Time Systems
5.2 Discrete-Time Approximations of Continuous-Time Systems
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Glossary
Bibliography
Biographical Sketches

Summary

When a digital controller is designed to control a continuous-time plant it is important

to have a good understanding of the plant to be controlled as well as of the controller
and its interfaces with the plant. There are two fundamental approaches to designing
discrete-time control systems for continuous-time plants.

The first approach is to derive a discrete-time equivalent of the plant and then design a
discrete-time controller directly to control the discretized plant. This approach to

Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)

CONTROL SYSTEMS, ROBOTICS, AND AUTOMATION Vol II - Discrete-Time Equivalents to Continuous-Time Systems -
Mohammed S. Santina and Allen R. Stubberud

designing a digital controller directly, which has many variations, parallels the classical
approach to analog controller design. One begins with simple discrete-time controllers,
increasing their complexity until both steady state error and transient performance
requirements are met.

The other approach to designing discrete-time control systems for continuous-time

plants is to first design a continuous-time controller for the plant, then derive a digital
filter that closely approximates the behavior of the original analog controller.

The filter design can approximate the integrations with discrete-time operations or it can
be made to have step (or other) response samples that are equal to samples of the analog
controller's step (or other) response. Usually, however, even for small sampling periods,
the discrete-time approximation performs less well than the continuous-time controller
from which it was derived.

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In this chapter, several classical and state space methods for discretizing continuous-

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time systems are developed and illustrated.

1. Introduction
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The rapid development of digital technology continues to change the boundaries of
control system design options. It is now routinely feasible to implement very
complicated digital controllers and perform the extensive calculations required for their
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design. These advances in implementation and design capability can be achieved at low
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cost because of the widespread availability of inexpensive, powerful digital computers

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and related devices.

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A digital control system uses digital hardware, usually in the form of a programmed
digital computer as the heart of the controller. In contrast, the controller in an analog
control system uses analog electronics, mechanical, electromechanical or hydraulic
devices. Digital controllers normally have analog elements at their periphery to
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interface with the plant; it is the internal workings of the controller that distinguishes
digital from analog control.
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An example of a digital control system for a continuous-time plant is shown in Figure 1.

The system has two reference inputs and four outputs, only two of which are measured
by the two sensors. The analog-to-digital converters (A/D) perform sampling of the
sensor signals and produce binary representations of these sensors signals.

The digital controller algorithm in the digital computer then modifies sensor signals and
generates control inputs u1 (k ) and u2 (k ) . The control inputs u1 (k ) and u2 (k ) are then
converted to analog signals via digital-to-analog converters (D/A). The analog signals
u1 (t ) and u2 (t ) are applied to the plant actuators or control elements to control the
behavior of the plant.

Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)

CONTROL SYSTEMS, ROBOTICS, AND AUTOMATION Vol II - Discrete-Time Equivalents to Continuous-Time Systems -
Mohammed S. Santina and Allen R. Stubberud

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Figure 1: A Digital Control System Controlling a Continuous-Time Plant
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2. Design of Discrete-Time Control Systems for Continuous-Time plants

There are two fundamental approaches to designing discrete-time control systems for
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continuous-time plants. The first approach is to derive a discrete-time equivalent of the

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plant and then design a discrete-time controller directly to control the discretized plant.
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This approach is discussed in section 3. The other and more traditional approach to
designing discrete-time control systems for continuous-time plants is to first design a
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continuous-time controller for the plant, then derive a discrete-time equivalent that
closely approximates the behavior of the original analog controller. This approach is
especially useful when an existing continuous-time controller or a part of the controller
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is to be replaced with a discrete-time controller. Usually, however, even for small

sampling periods, the discrete-time approximation performs less well than the
continuous-time controller from which it was derived. The approach to deriving a
discrete-time controller that closely approximates the behavior of the original analog
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controller is discussed in section 4.

Before we discuss discrete-time equivalents of continuous-time systems, it is instructive

to briefly discuss sampling and reconstruction in order to gain greater insight into the
process of discretizing continuous-time systems.

2.1. Sampling and A/D Conversion

Sampling is the process of deriving a discrete-time sequence from a continuous-time

function. As shown in Figure 2, an incoming continuous-time signal f (t ) is sampled by
an A/D converter to produce the discrete-time sequence f (k ) . Usually, but not always,
the samples are evenly spaced in time. The sampling interval T is generally known and
is indicated on the diagram or elsewhere.

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CONTROL SYSTEMS, ROBOTICS, AND AUTOMATION Vol II - Discrete-Time Equivalents to Continuous-Time Systems -
Mohammed S. Santina and Allen R. Stubberud

Figure 2: Sampling of a Continuous-Time Signal Using an A/D Converter

The A/D converter produces a binary representation, using a finite number of bits, of
the applied input signal at each sample time. Using a finite number of bits to represent a

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signal sample generally results in quantization errors in the A/D process. For example,
the maximum quantization error in 16-bit A/D conversion is 2-16 = 0.0015%, which is

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very low compared with typical errors in analog sensors. This error, if taken to be
"noise", gives a signal-to-noise (SNR) of 20log10(2-16) = 96.3 db which is much better
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than that of most control systems.

The control system designer must ensure that enough bits are used to give the desired
system accuracy. Study of the effects of roundoff or truncation errors in digital
computation is beyond our scope in this chapter, but it is important to use adequate
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word lengths in fixed or floating point computations. Years ago, digital hardware was
very expensive, so minimizing word length was much more important than it is today.
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When a continuous-time signal f (t ) is sampled to form the sequence f (k ) , there exists

a relationship between the Laplace transform of f (t ) and the z-transform of f (k ) . If a
rational Laplace transform is expanded into partial fraction terms, the corresponding
continuous-time signal components in the time domain are powers of time,
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exponentials, sinusoids, and so on.

Uniform samples of these elementary signal components have, in turn, simple z-

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transforms that can be summed to give the z-transform of the entire sampled signal.
Table 1 lists some Laplace transform terms and the resulting z-transforms when the
corresponding time functions are sampled uniformly.

f (t ) F ( s) f (k ) F ( z)
u (t ) , unit step 1 u (k ) unit step z
,
s z 1
tu (t ) 1 kTu (k ) Tz
s2 ( z 1) 2
e- at u (t ) 1 (e- aT ) k u (k ) z
s+a z e aT

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CONTROL SYSTEMS, ROBOTICS, AND AUTOMATION Vol II - Discrete-Time Equivalents to Continuous-Time Systems -
Mohammed S. Santina and Allen R. Stubberud

te- at u (t ) 1 kT (e- aT ) k u (k ) Tze aT

( s + a)2 ( z e aT ) 2
sin(t )u (t ) sin(kT )u (k ) z sin T
s + 2
2
z 2 z cos T + 1
2

cos(t )u (t ) s cos(kT )u (k ) z ( z cos T )

s + 2
2
z 2 z cos T + 1
2

Table 1: Laplace and Z-Transform Pairs

As an example, consider the continuous-time function with Laplace transform

2 1 1
F (s) = = +
s( s + 2) s s + 2

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The z-transform of the sampled signal with a sampling interval T = 0.1 seconds is

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F ( z) =
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z

z
z 1 z e 0.2
=
0.18 z
( z 1)( z 0.82)
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2.2. Reconstruction and D/A Conversion
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Reconstruction is the formation of a continuous-time function from a sequence of

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samples. Many different continuous-time functions can have the same set of samples, so
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a reconstruction is not unique.

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Reconstruction is performed using D/A converters. Electronic D/A converters typically

produce a step reconstruction from incoming signal samples by converting the binary-
coded digital input to a voltage, transferring the voltage to the output, and holding the
output voltage constant until the next sample is available.
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The symbol for a D/A converter that generates the step reconstruction f 0 (t ) from
signal samples f (k ) is shown in Figure 3(a). Sample and hold (S/H) is the operation of
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holding each of these samples for a sampling interval T to form the step reconstruction.
As shown in Figure 3(b), the step reconstruction of a continuous-time signal from
samples can be represented as the conversion of the sequence f (k ) to its corresponding
impulse train f (t ) , where

f (t ) = f (k ) (t kT ) (1)
k =0

then conversion of the impulse train to the step reconstruction. This viewpoint neatly
separates conversion of the discrete sequence to a continuous-time waveform and the
details of the shape of the reconstructed waveform.

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CONTROL SYSTEMS, ROBOTICS, AND AUTOMATION Vol II - Discrete-Time Equivalents to Continuous-Time Systems -
Mohammed S. Santina and Allen R. Stubberud

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Figure 3: Digital-to-Analog (D/A) Conversion with Sample and Hold (S/H)

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The continuous-time transfer function that converts the impulse train with sampling
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interval T to a step reconstruction is termed zero-order-hold (ZOH). Each incoming

impulse in equation (1) to the ZOH produces a rectangular pulse of duration T .
Therefore; the transfer function of the ZOH is given by:
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1
Lo ( s ) = (1 e sT )
s
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One way to improve the accuracy of the reconstruction is to employ holds that are
higher-order than the zero-order hold. An nth order hold produces a piecewise nth
degree polynomial that passes through the most recent n + 1 input samples.

It can be shown that, as the order of the hold is increased, a well-behaved signal is
reconstructed with increased accuracy. For example, a first order hold (FOH) uses the
previous two samples to construct a straight-line approximation during each interval.
The transfer function of the FOH is:

(Ts + 1)(1 e sT ) 2
L1 ( s ) =
Ts 2

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CONTROL SYSTEMS, ROBOTICS, AND AUTOMATION Vol II - Discrete-Time Equivalents to Continuous-Time Systems -
Mohammed S. Santina and Allen R. Stubberud

A model of the FOH is shown in Figure 4(a). If the hardware of the FOH is not
available, one can implement a FOH as shown in Figure 4(b).

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Figure 4: First-order hold reconstruction

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3. Discrete-Time Equivalents of Continuous-Time Plants

The first approach to designing discrete-time control systems for continuous-time plants
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is to derive a discrete-time equivalent of the plant and then design a discrete-time

controller directly to control the discretized plant.

Consider the general configuration shown in Figure 5(a) where it is desired to design a
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discrete-time controller transfer function Gc ( z ) to control the continuous-time plant

described by the transfer function Gp ( s) .

The first step is to derive a discrete-time equivalent of the plant described by Gp ( s) as

shown in Figure 5(b). To do so, the dashed portion of Figure 5(b) has been redrawn in
Figure 6(a) to emphasize the relationship between the discrete-time signals, f (k ) and
y (k ) .

It is desired now to find the discrete-time transfer function Gp ( z ) of the arrangement,

and this can be done by finding its pulse response.

Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)

CONTROL SYSTEMS, ROBOTICS, AND AUTOMATION Vol II - Discrete-Time Equivalents to Continuous-Time Systems -
Mohammed S. Santina and Allen R. Stubberud

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Figure 5: A discrete-time equivalent of a continuous-time plant

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For a unit pulse input of

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f (k ) = (k )
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the sampled-and-held continuous-time signal that is the input to Gp ( s) is given by

f 0 (t ) = u (t ) u (t T )
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or

1 e sT
F ( s) =
0

s
where T is the sampling interval. Then

1 e sT
Y ( s ) = F 0 ( s)Gp ( s ) = Gp ( s ) (2)
s

and therefore

Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)

CONTROL SYSTEMS, ROBOTICS, AND AUTOMATION Vol II - Discrete-Time Equivalents to Continuous-Time Systems -
Mohammed S. Santina and Allen R. Stubberud

1 e sT
Gp ( z ) = Z Gp ( s ) (3)
s

where Z is the z-transform as given in Table 1. This equivalence is shown in Figure

6(b).

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Figure 6: Discretizing a continuous-time plant

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As a numerical example, suppose that the continuous-time transfer function of the plant
is given by
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4
Gp ( s) =
s( s + 2)

and the sampling interval is T = 0.2 seconds. According to equation (2),

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1 e0.2 s 4 0.2 s 4
Y ( s ) = F ( s)Gp ( s ) =
0
s ( s + 2) = (1 e ) s 2 ( s + 2)
s

1 2 1
= (1 e0.2 s ) + 2 +
s s ( s + 2)

Using table 1, the discrete-time plant transfer function, for T = 0.2 , is determined using
equation (3) as:

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CONTROL SYSTEMS, ROBOTICS, AND AUTOMATION Vol II - Discrete-Time Equivalents to Continuous-Time Systems -
Mohammed S. Santina and Allen R. Stubberud

z 2(0.2) z z 0.0703z + 0.0616

Gp ( z ) = (1 z 1 ) + + =
z 1 ( z 1)
2
z e 0.4 ( z 1)( z 0.6703)

Knowing Gp ( z ) , and returning to figure 5(b), the control system designer can now
proceed to specify the digital controller Gc ( z ) using classical design techniques to meet
the control system requirements. The classical approach to designing a digital controller
directly, which has many variations, parallels the classical approach to analog controller
design. We begin with simple discrete-time controllers, increasing their complexity
until the performance requirements can be met. Classical discrete-time control system
design is beyond our scope in this chapter and therefore will not be discussed.

In the following section, we present several methods for discretizing continuous-time

controllers. In the latter section, the relationship between continuous-time state variable

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plant models and their discrete counterparts are derived with the results being useful for
designing digital controllers for discrete-time systems.

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Bibliography

strm K.J. and Wittenmark B. (1996). Computer Controlled Systems, 3rd edition. Prentice-Hall,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA: [This text presents design methods and practical aspects of computer-
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controlled systems].
Franklin G.F., Powell J.D., and Workman M.L. (1997). Digital Control of Dynamic Systems, 3rd edition.
Addison-Wesley, Reading MA, USA: [This leading text presents up to date material on both classical and
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state space digital control methods].

Houpis C.H. and Lamont G.B. (1991). Digital Control Systems: Theory, Hardware, Software, 2nd
edition. McGraw-Hill, New York, USA: [This edition presents design and transforms methods, robotics
applications, modern technology for digital control implementation, and CAD packages for control].
Kuo B.C. (1992). Digital Control Systems, 2nd edition. Oxford University Press, New York, USA: [This
text covers the theory and applications of digital control systems including disturbance rejection,
sensitivity considerations, and zero-ripple deadbeat-response design].
Ogata K. (1994). Discrete-Time Control Systems. 2nd edition. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA:
[This text provides a comprehensive treatment of the analysis and design of discrete-time control systems.
It presents many instructive examples and worked-out problems].
Phillips C.L. and Nagle H.T., Jr. (1994). Digital Control System Analysis and Design, 3rd edition.
Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA: [This popular text covers discrete-time systems and the z-
transform, stability analysis techniques, digital controller design, and digital filter structures].
Santina M.S., Stubberud A.R., and Hostetter G.H. (1996). Discrete-Time Equivalents to Continuous-Time

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CONTROL SYSTEMS, ROBOTICS, AND AUTOMATION Vol II - Discrete-Time Equivalents to Continuous-Time Systems -
Mohammed S. Santina and Allen R. Stubberud

Systems, The Control Handbook, CRC Press, Florida, USA: [This chapter provides in-depth discussions
on equivalence relationships between continuous-time and digital implementations].
Santina M.S., Stubberud A.R., and Hostetter G.H. (1994). Digital Control System Design, 2nd edition.
Oxford University Press, New York, USA: [This leading, text features comprehensive treatment of digital
control design methods, pole placement, Luenberger observer design, quadratic optimal control and
Kalman filter].

Biographical Sketches

Mohammed S. Santina is a recognized expert on advanced control systems with extensive experience in
the design and development of satellite control systems for aerospace applications. He received the B.S.
and M.S. degrees from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) and the Ph.D. from the
University of California, Irvine (UCI), in 1978, 1981, and 1987, respectively, all in Electrical
Engineering. He was with Rockwell International from 1981 to 1992, and with the Aerospace
Corporation from1992 to 1996. Since 1996, he has been with the Boeing Company where is currently a
Senior Technical Fellow facilitating the integration of attitude control systems technologies for several

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Boeing programs. He has also taught graduate and undergraduate level courses on control systems and
estimation theory for over 22 years at the University of California, Irvine and California State University,

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Long Beach. He is a co-author of the Digital Control System Design textbook published by Oxford
University Press, New York, 1994. He is also the author or co-author of more than forty papers in leading
journals including the 5 chapters in the popular Control Handbook, CRC Press, Florida, 1996, and the
chapter in the Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
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New York, 1999. His current research interests include time optimal and nonlinear control of agile
spacecrafts, and modal estimation and identification of flexible spacecrafts.

Allen R. Stubberud is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California,

Irvine (UCI). He received the B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Idaho in 1956 (with
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highest honors) and the M.S. and Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles
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(UCLA), in 1958 and 1962, respectively. From 1962 to 1969 he served on the faculty at UCLA as an
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Assistant/Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering. He has been on the faculty at UCI since 1969.
From 1972 to 1996 he has held a number of administrative positions at UCI including the Dean of
Engineering, Associate Dean of Engineering and Chairman of the Electrical and Computer Engineering
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Department. From 1987 to 1988, Professor Stubberud served as the Division Director of the National
Science Foundation. He also held the position of Chief Scientist, US Air Force from 1983 to 1985.
Professor Stubberud has consulted for a number of organizations, including Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
McDonnell-Douglas Corp., ORINCON Corporation, US Air Force, Interstate Electronics and Point
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Research Corporation. He is author or co-author of more than 200 articles and several textbooks on
estimation and control.
Dr. Stubberud has received many honors and awards in recognition of his contributions to the controls
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and signal processing fields. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS), and New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS). Dr. Stubberud is the
Recipient of the IEEE Centennial medal, IEEE Millennium Medal, and the US Air Force Exceptional
Civilian Service Decoration (2 times). He is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, RTO
Mission Systems Panel, and a member of the International Symposium on Circuits and Systems Advisory
Committee.

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